The Komen decision will probably prompt more attacks on Planned Parenthood, which has long provided low-cost medical care to women in need.

SGK is demonstrating their conclusion that Planned Parenthood is unreliable and unworthy of support from a well-respected organization. This would be a severe blow to the reputation and fundraising efforts of PP if the decision were not so widely seen as political.

Nancy Brinker may say that the criticism she’s facing is ‘hurtful’, but she offers no recognition of the fact that Planned Parenthood has provided women’s health care in the face of extreme and vicious language and physical violence.

Barack Obama actually did grow up in a low-income home, but he’s unforgivably smart. And rich. Mitt Romney is really rich, and he looks silly when he tries to hide it. He should reach out and show the folks that rich people are just like you and me, no matter what F.Scott Fitzgerald said.

That great Rhode Islander, Martin Mull, put it into a song–

Middle Class Blues

I woke up this afternoon
And both of the cars was gone

I woke up this afternoon
And both of the cars was gone

I felt so sad and lowdown

I threw my drink
I threw my drink
I threw my drink

Across the lawn

Planned Parenthood had received about $700,000 annually from Komen to provide poor women with breast cancer screening, education and access to affordable mammograms…

“The scurrilous accusations being hurled at this organization are profoundly hurtful to so many of us,” said Brinker, who founded the group following her sister’s death in 1980 of breast cancer. “More importantly, they are a dangerous distraction from the work that still remains to be done in ridding the world of breast cancer.”

But philanthropy experts said it will be difficult for Komen to convince people it wasn’t playing politics.

Wow. Try going to work with a police escort and a safety plan for bomb threats if you want hurtful. Try hearing in the press that your organization is dumped because of a trumped-up investigation if you want scurrilous. Komen’s bad publicity is self-inflicted. Planned Parenthood didn’t ask to be publicly disowned as untrustworthy by an organization that till now has been second only to ‘Jerry’s Kids’ in tugging America’s heartstrings.

A Mother Jones article lists the exceptions Susan G. Komen Foundation makes to its new rule against funding organizations under investigation. Apparently the Foundation is using selective enforcement.
Jen, a commenter on the article, posted this link to a blogger, dinoiafamily, who describes her own recent battle with breast cancer and the humiliation of being pink-washed…

I spent a good portion of the last year mortified about the type of cancer I had. I received a pink basket in the hospital (for my original surgery) filled with pink, plastic items that included a poem and a “tiddy” bear. I was supposed to be cheered up by the poem, as it was about another woman and how she received a fabulous new set of breasts. I was also supposed to be thrilled by the junk in the basket. Instead I was mortified. A gift basket of organic fruit would be one thing (and, yes, we did receive those and loved them), but this was just beyond painful. Rubbing the pink-washing in my face once again. The basket just reminded me that because I had this recent blip, I was supposed to become a member of another club. Well, no, thank you.

Please understand that not everything pink disturbs me and I know that many pink ribbons are truly meant as a sign of support. However, Komen is not supportive. Coloring buckets of fried chicken pink is not supportive. Putting pink ribbons on products that we don’t need or want is not supportive. In fact, for many of us, it’s a reminder of times we’d rather forget. If anything, Komen was extremely unsupportive when I was diagnosed.

Did they come to my house and cook me meals when I was sick? No, but my friends ensured we were had groceries and dinners for months. Did they visit me in the hospital or take care of my kids? No, but my friends and family made sure that happened. Well, what did they do?

They stepped up their efforts to get money from me. It was almost as if my name was on a new high priority list. As though because I had been diagnosed, I suddenly had the ability and desire to give to an organization that, in my opinion, has done little towards their supposed goal. It took three letters from me and three phone calls from Peter to have my name removed from their mailing list.

Dinoiafamily examines the marketing, message and high administrative costs that make Susan G. Komen a questionable cause to donate to. Read the rest of her excellent post here.

I’m not especially fond of pink anyway, and in years of nursing I’ve seen way too many slick campaigns for pharmaceutical companies and charities. If you had just arrived from Mars you would think that Cancer or AIDS or Diabetes makes people attractive and full of confidence, as they spend their days strolling beaches and frolicking with grandchildren. Guys, being sick sucks. Put that on a bumper sticker.

Planned Parenthood is accessible health care for young and uninsured women. They were my only health care when I was young, as for many of us. The young woman with a breast lump is a statistical outsider, but she is also the one whose life is saved by early detection. She is the woman who can find help at Planned Parenthood. When I needed birth control, Planned Parenthood was there, and they gave me screening, education and prevention information as well.

A few years ago I was invited to go on a Walk for the Cure. I will never forget the huge number of people who turned out. Some in teams. Some wearing shirts with a picture of a mother or a sister or a friend. I never had realized just how many people are affected by breast cancer. Now at an age where family and friends are survivors, I understand what it is to dread a disease.

Pink ribbons and a positive attitude won’t stop cancer. Detection, prevention and research will. I’m sorry that Susan G. Komen chose to put politics over women’s lives. Twenty percent of American women have visited a Planned Parenthood clinic at least once. That’s a constituency. Donations have been pouring in. It may be that the Komen Foundation has mis-judged the real situation of the women they exist to serve.

UPDATE: A third high-ranking member of the Komen Foundation is ready to resign over the decision to de-fund Planned Parenthood…

Dr. Kathy Plesser, a Manhattan radiologist on the medical advisory board of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s New York chapter, said she plans to resign from her position unless Komen reverses its decision to pull grant money from Planned Parenthood.

“I’m a physician and my interest is women’s health, and I am disturbed by Komen’s decision because I am a very strong advocate for serving under-served women,” Plesser told The Huffington Post. “Eliminating this funding will mean there’s no place for these women to go. Where are these women to go to have a mammography? Do they not deserve to have mammography?”

With her decision, Plesser joins Komen’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, and the executive director of Komen’s Los Angeles County chapter, Deb Anthony, both of whom also resigned in protest.

MORE: Dave Von Ebbers links to this law journal article about how much donor money the Komen Foundation spends suing other breast cancer charities for using words like ‘for a cure’.

Over the past fifteen years, the Foundation has reviewed eighty-three different groups who have attempted to use the phrase “for the cure” or “for a cure” and pursued legal action against half. Anne Thompson, “Trademark protection by Susan G. Komen organization.” NBC Nightly News Transcripts, Jan. 24, 2011. For example, the Foundation contacted the organization entitled “Kites for a Cure,” which is a kite-flier group dedicated to raising money to cure lung-cancer. The group refused to bow-out quickly, upset over what it believed to be a misdirection of both organizations’ efforts against one another rather than on their common goal.

A PAINFUL BETRAYAL is the title of an editorial in the New York Times. There is definitely a good girl/bad girl dynamic here, and a class aspect as well. Rich girls don’t have to spend much time in clinics. There are times when our common humanity outweighs our differences, life-threatening illness is one of them. It is truly painful to see an organization that exists for women’s health undermine one of the major providers.

Wheel of the Year

Or Candlemas, or Groundhog Day. We’re at the midpoint of winter, and if you have been going into work in the dark and coming out in the dark you notice the sky is a little lighter.

I think there’s a holiday or two around this date that I’ve overlooked, please let me know.

We now have ten hours of sunlight, and gaining fast. Spring is six weeks away.

Reblogged from Teacher Under Construction:

source: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/01/10_years_later_no_child_left_behind_ignores_plenty.html

This is an interesting way to view things, for the sake of experimentation. I would like to see how corporate education reformers would respond to this.

The Poet

Once again, organizer extraordinaire Anne Clanton and RISD Museum are hosting a poetry marathon in honor of Langston Hughes. If all you know of Hughes is a quick reading of ‘Dream Deferred’ you don’t know this poet. His short poems build on one another. Read aloud by different voices to a jazz beat, they take you into the gorgeous mosaic of New York City in the 50′s and 60′s.

It’s fun, too, to see Providence people up on stage, with performing talent you never knew they had. Watch out for Central High School. They have a drama coach.

This writer will be participating for the forth year in a row. Wish me luck, or break a leg or whatever.

17th-Annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
Sunday, Feb 5 1:00p
at Metcalf Auditorium, RISD Museum, Providence, RI

Two-time Grammy Award-winning performer Bill Harley reads Langston Hughes’ poetry aloud, along with members of the
community, and accompanied by the Daniel Ian Smith Jazz Trio. Coordinated by Anne Edmonds Clanton; co-sponsored by RISD’s English Department. Free to public; reception follows.

(Thanks, to Boston.com.for the notice.)

Here’s directions to the Museum.

I should know, because I used to do events. Getting people to assemble indoors with free food is not a sure thing.

There was a diversity of opinion on the impact of the decision to cease overnight occupation of the park. Some saw it as a surrender, others as letting go of an action that was drawing attention from the core issue– economic justice. The crowd that gathered around the statue of General Burnside bore witness to the impact of the recession. Elders and teenagers, all races and conditions of life, drawn to this action by a common sense that now is the time to act.

I was Downtown in 2001 when the Towers fell. There was a sense, then, of our common humanity. It seemed then like all the veils fell away, and we were all just Americans. And such a love and grief for our country. We all wanted to do something, but our leaders had no good word to give us. And soon we were herded into a war we never asked for.

I think the love of country that rang so true in 2001, lives. A potential energy ready to move us into the next phase. This is what Democracy looks like.

Occupy Providence can still be found in Burnside Park, in the person of some dedicated volunteers who keep a presence there in the day. And the Occupation will hold General Assembly at locations all over the city and state.

This Saturday, February 4 at 2pm, General Assembly will meet at Knight Memorial Library, 275 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, on the bus line. Free and open to the public.

Thanks, Occupy

I stopped by Burnside Park yesterday with some coffee and took away some Occu-debris. Then I went to First UU, like Paul Revere (sort of). Get on downtown and join the cleanup!

Amazing what they did, working till 1:30am. The tents are down, materials in neat stacks. The ground is raked, the fountain clean.

All of us who support the call of economic justice for the 99% have our work cut out for us. Emmanuel House can use our support. General Assembly will continue to meet twice a week. The City of Providence has declared a ten-year plan to house all its residents and end homelessness. This can happen if we keep on track.

Follow Occupy Providence on Facebook for locations of GA.

Richard Salit from the Providence Journal covers the park cleanup and departure, not online yet- but on the front page of the print edition today.

Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and the uncertainty. You are an inspiration. The work is just beginning.

If you have a truck, even better.

Parking is awful. Bring your love energy. Providence has created the best Occupation nationwide– let’s show the world that we are ready for the next step– taking the General Assembly statewide, to hear the voice of the 99% in Olneyville, Central Falls, Woonsocket and all our cities and towns.

UPDATE: I went by about 7pm. Cleanup is still in progress, neat open space between tents being taken down. Lots of stuff still to move. I’m taking a load to Johnston Landfill tomorrow in my tiny car. If you are inclined to lend a hand, there’s still time.

UPDATE II: As of 8:30, looking good. One truck on site, tents mostly packed, some still there. I don’t know if Occupy will be able to complete the move by dawn, but much neater, more organized than even a couple of hours ago.